The Putnam Valley Library Board has suddenly withdrawn their plan to put a referendum on the ballot to become funded under Chapter 414.
Under their withdrawn plan, our Library taxes would have drastically increased from $278,000 to $450,000. They shelved their plans for this year when working closely with Jackie Annabi, we discovered their calculations of cost per homeowner used to promote the idea were woefully understated time after time again.
The median home in Putnam Valley has an assessed value of $300,000 and currently pays $56 per year for the Library through Town taxes, not the $5.15 the Library Board boasted. Their key promotion was that the new $450,000 budget would only cost the homeowner $3.19 more per year. They equated the increase to a “cup of coffee” during their PR campaign.
Once this huge error or misinformation was brought to their attention by Deputy Supervisor Annabi, they immediately withdrew their plans 2 hours later.
However, it is more than this misinformation or lack of disclosure the residents of Putnam Valley should be leery of; it’s a complete lack of transparency. They failed to tell the public that they also receive on average $82,000 in funding from other tax payer sources yearly, besides Town taxes in the amount of $278,307.
They failed to disclose the amount they have in reserves, nor why they chose not to use part of the $490,000 in reserves for 2012 or the $516,000 in 2013 to repair the two bridges that are in disrepair and closed.
A major reason for the requested $450,000 new budget was to begin these repairs at an estimated cost of $295,000.
The Library will need to regain the taxpayers trust by being completely forthcoming. To date, the Library has not demonstrated that and with this latest attempt, errors in calculations, misinformation and their refusal to become an elected board prior to any change in their funding presents a real sense of mistrust with the community whose funding they seek.
Dan Vera
Click here to follow Daily Voice and receive free news updates.
